Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 5:1

"I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] bride: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." — Song Of Solomon 5:1 (ASV)

I am come into my garden. —This continues the same figure, and under it describes once more the complete union of the wedded pair. The only difficulty lies in the invitation, Eat, O friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved (the marginal reading is and be drunken with loves). Some suppose an invitation to an actual marriage feast; and if sung as an epithalamium, the song might have this double intention. But the marginal reading, “be drunken with loves,” suggests the right interpretation.

The poet, as has already been said (see note on Song of Solomon 2:7), loves to invoke the sympathy of others with his joys, and the following lines of Shelley reproduce the very feeling of this passage. Here, as throughout the poem, it is the “new strong wine of love,” and not the fruit of the grape, which is desired and drunk.

“You are the wine, whose drunkenness is all
We can desire, O Love! and happy souls,
Before from your vine the leaves of autumn fall,
Catch you and feed, from your overflowing bowls,
Thousands who thirst for your ambrosial dew.”

Prince Athanase.